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In
August 1980, Deng, the late President of China, and "father
of the Chinese reforms" made a prophetic statement"It
is glorious to be rich". The Chinese, it appears, have
never looked back after this. The country is in an unstoppable
race to be the number one economic power in the world.
That
is the impression I got when returning from the world conference
on "Optimizing Resource Use Efficiency for Sustainable
Intensification of Agriculture", hosted by the International
Fertilizer Industry Association in Paris and China National
Chemical Corporation, with the patronage of the Chinese Government,
which was held in the capital city, Kunming, of Yunnan Province,
the agricultural belt of the country, between February 27
and March 2. I had the rare privilege of being the only invitee
from India, to speak on this revolutionary soil management
technique, "The Nutrient Buffer Power Concept",
which is charting a completely new course on modern farming
in Europe, Africa, and North America. And it seemed, China
did not want to be left behind in taking full advantage of
this revolutionary soil management concept, which has very
successfully addressed the environmental, primarily soil-related,
fallout of the so-called Green Revolution.
More
than 250 top scientists from all over the world gathered in
the sprawling city of Kunming to put their heads together
to chart out a new course on world agriculture in general,
and Chinese agriculture in particular. Right from the beginning
of the conference, which was inaugurated by the Minister of
Agriculture of the Yunnan province and highly placed Chinese
officials, including the breakaway Taiwan (though the list
of the delegates from Taiwan was kept strictly confidential),
it was very clear that the intention of the Chinese was to
extract the maximum scientific advantage from the combined
pool of brilliant scientific talent from all over the world,
and not the usual seminars and `scientific' gatherings one
observes so very frequently in this country, where it ends
up as what a senior official of a foreign mission told meas
"developmental tourism", where the delegates are
treated to a "paid holiday". |
